Building a Translation Solution

Translation can be one of the most challenging problems to solve and definitely one size does not fit all. Solutions may partly be provided by frameworks and platforms in use so in general the overall system will be heterogenous.

To start tackling this vast area, let's start by splitting the problem in typical subdomains:

1. Content authoring. Where is translatable content coming from and what are the requirements of content owners? What are the different content types? Is there any versioning, approval, testing requirement?
2. Translation back-end integration. Who does the translation and how is translated content received and stored? What are the required file formats? How often is content sent? How to deal with repetitions of the same content?
3. Translation front-end integration. What different platforms require translated content? How is translated content retrieved by the product? What are the required file formats? How are translations deployed? How often?
4. Global product testing. How to validate the international experience is correct? What is the bug fix process? This may include linguistic correctness (in context), functional regression, and other i18n concerns (like dynamically formatted numbers and dates).